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6 top tips for entering the Lloyds Bank National Business Awards

02 April 2020

Struggling to write your awards pitch? Getting too bogged down in the details? Read our six top tips for writing your entry to the Lloyds Bank National Business Awards, to help you on your way as you compare your business achievements to the very best of UK business.

1. Tell your story—and don’t be afraid to boast

The Lloyds Bank National Business Awards gets hundreds of entries every year, so to stand out from the crowd you need to demonstrate real business success. Judges want to hear stories of entrepreneurial, creative and dynamic UK businesses that offer something they’ve never seen before—in short, they want to be wowed. Don’t be afraid to blow your own trumpet, because if you’re enthusiastic about your successes, the judges will be too.

2. Substantiate your claims

Judges will quiz you on your firm’s performance, so make sure your entry contains all the key data, evidence and statistics to back up your
claims. Don’t fob the judges off with vague statements such as ‘feedback was good’ and ‘results were strong’—support these assertions! You’ll quickly be found out if your entry is little more than a string of platitudes, but if you can offer real figures and credible evidence of business performance, judges will be impressed.

3. Don’t get hung up on money

While high revenues and increased profitability are major selling points, you shouldn’t base your entire entry around it. To really stand out from the crowd, you should include your firm’s other achievements, whether that’s community impact, customer impact, best practice, workplace culture or sustainability. More importantly, try and explain what you and your firm have learned from the process, and what lessons you could impart to others. Growth is important, but only one aspect of your success story.

4. Identify your USP

Lloyds Bank National Business Awards winners don’t have to be the biggest or fastest growing in their field, but they do have to stand out from the crowd in some way. They need to be innovative and creative, and to have grown and expanded in a unique, sustainable way, or to have done so while meeting considerable challenges. You need to identify what makes your achievements special, and how your organisation is truly different from its competitors.

5. Don’t get bogged down in the detail

It’s easy to focus too much on process, spending most of your entry describing what your firm did and how it did it. Although judges do want to hear your story, they do expect it to be balanced with the results, growth, financial performance and return on investment.

6. Be prepared for the second stage of judging

Your entry is only the first stage of judging: should it be shortlisted, you’ll be asked to present it to a panel of expert judges, most of which are leaders in their fields. You’ll need to be prepared not just to defend the assertions made in your entry, but also to add further detail and discuss your company’s achievements. Make sure you know your entry well, but also that you’re ready and willing to competently offer your judges detailed knowledge of company performance—think of it almost like a job interview!

To get more helpful tips from awards experts, register to receive a free copy of our recent webinar on how to write a successful awards pitch.

And if you’re feeling ready to put your organisation to the test, enter the Lloyds Bank National Business Awards today, and take advantage of our Early Bird Rate.